Honorees listed in Alphabetical order by last name
Richard J. Alfera
President and managing partner
Goff, Backa, Alfera & Co.
President and managing partner of Goff, Backa, Alfera & Co, Richard J. Alfera, has led the company by developing a full set of business-focused capabilities typical of a large firm, but in a boutique setting.
He focuses on hiring young professionals and growing their skills and responsibilities, aiming to retain employees at the firm for the bulk of their careers.
Alfera has undertaken a focus on educating clients about the importance of the balanced scorecard approach to financial management to help organizations of all sizes translate strategy, align employee action and harness the full power of value-creating intellectual assets.
A second innovative practice of GBACO has been its focus on becoming “the CPA’s CPA.” Every business needs a good CPA — even a CPA firm. Alfera’s team is nationally recognized as one of the top firms that CPA firms call on to do their compliance audits.
William Baker
President and CEO
Irwin Car and Equipment
Since President and CEO William Baker acquired Irwin Car and Equipment in 1993, the company has seen consistent growth because of the diversification of industries that Irwin serves, as well as the wide range of products that Irwin produces.
Under Baker’s leadership, Irwin focuses on opportunities for growth, expansion and the development of new customers in new industries.
The active pursuit of unique projects and outside-the-box applications continues to drive Irwin’s success. During Baker’s time leading the business, 16 product line acquisitions of synergistically related companies, as well as the addition of several distribution product lines combined with aggressive organic growth, have given Irwin the stability to survive difficult economic times.
Irwin now reflects Baker’s model for a company that is made up of multiple niche business units that are related at a common level, yet provide a sound and diversified mix of markets, products and industries to eliminate some market cyclicality that is a risk to the company.
Neil Campbell
President and CEO
Precision Therapeutics
Neil Campbell recently took over as the president and CEO of Precision Therapeutics, a personalized medicine company that seeks to improve the outcomes of cancer patients and their quality of life.
The company has been dedicated to personalized cancer care, and it offers a portfolio of products developed to help guide physicians and patients with difficult clinical decisions throughout the cancer care continuum.
During his career, Campbell has successfully developed and/or introduced more than 275 products and services in the areas of high-performance computing, medical software, Internet-of-things, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, clinical and industrial diagnostics, consumer health care products, research products, bioinformatics and nanotechnology.
Campbell, leading from a serial entrepreneur and institutional investor perspective, has experience in startups and raising capital from both the private and public markets. He also currently serves on several industry, government, nonprofit and company boards, and is an active author on a variety of subjects relating to the research, development and commercialization of science and technology.
Carlos Cardoso
Chairman, president and CEO
Kennametal
Since Carlos Cardoso joined the company as group president in 2003 and subsequently succeeded to his current role as chairman, president and CEO, Kennametal has improved profitability while sustaining growth at more than twice the rate of global industrial production in the markets it serves.
Under Cardoso, Kennametal has consistently earned more than 40 percent of revenues each year from innovative new products.
To offset the imminent retiring of the bulk of the industry’s workforce, the baby boomers, Cardoso has invested in software that amasses all of Kennametal’s information into an application that runs analytics on production processes and optimizes productivity.
In 2012, Cardoso also founded Kennametal’s Young Engineers Program to provide hands-on learning of advanced manufacturing to high school students.
To drive a philanthropic culture, Cardoso runs the Kennametal Foundation with a keen focus on funding, scholarships and support for post-secondary technical education and development.
Noah Cohen
CEO
Premier Innovations Group
Noah Cohen, CEO of Premier Innovations Group, focuses on innovation, employee empowerment, motivation and cultural development. He encourages his team to work the hours they want, incorporating the mindset of business as a lifestyle. The intent is to accomplish projects on time and create new ideas that benefit the company.
Cohen also has been successful in growing Premier’s brand with a limited budget by strategically offering equity instead of money for internal services, and then developing these stockholders into strong company officers.
As a philanthropist, Cohen utilizes Premier to give back to the community by donating products and money to more than 1,000 charities in the U.S. over the past three years
As the CEO of an alcohol importing company, he also fosters corporate and social responsibility by creating a mobile app for impaired consumers to find taxis and hotels. Cohen has also set up a yearly program to donate free taxis for New Year’s Eve to promote safe drinking.
